Affected persons queue to receive cycles provided as part of tsunami aid

TSUNAMI SHOCKER 30 % households say kids are school-less

No follow up on AG’s Report
Irregularities and mismanagement of foreign funds
Millions of rupees unaccounted for

By Chandani Kirinde

As the country prepares to mark the second anniversary of the devastating tsunami that struck on 26 December 2004, a shortage of funds, non-deliverance on pledges made by NGOs and amidst allegations of corruption in the handing of tsunami funds, the recovery programmes are said to be moving forward, but at a slower pace than many would like to see them proceed.
Despite these shortcomings however, the main government body, the Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) that is entrusted with the task of handling reconstruction and development activities in affected areas is happy with the progress the country has made in the past two years.

Chief Operating officer of Reconstruction and Development Agency (RADA) Ms. Shanthi Fernando, said work was progressing satisfactorily in most areas of the country even though the pace of work continued to be slow in the north and east due to the unrest there.

Progress in the recovery programmes is measured to a great deal by the advancement in the housing programmes. According to the latest figures released by RADA, of the total estimated requirement in housing -114,069 of a total of 63,469 or 56% of housing requirements have been completed, while 47,859 or 42% are in progress. There is still shortfall of 11,710 housing units.
Even though it is a sharp decline from the over 57,000 that were living in temporary shelters at the beginning of this year, by the middle of this month, there are still over 14,900 families living in temporary shelters.

The Government has blamed the many NGOs who flocked to the country on the aftermath of the tsunami with promises of building houses and providing utilities, of reneging on their promises. The Parliamentary Select Committee that is probing the activities of NGOs, heard evidence recently that a majority of the NGOs who had pledged to build houses and even obtained land for the purpose, (from the government) had failed to even complete 10% of their work.

Ms. Fernando said that most of the NGOs that pledged to build a few houses had kept to their promise but some of the bigger ones that promised to build a several thousand houses have failed to do so. She charged that some of them had even left the country.
Of the around 150,000 people who lost their livelihoods in the tsunami, around 50% were from the fisheries sector, around 5% in agriculture and 45% in tourism, small businesses and trading.

Ms. Fernando added that there had been steady progress in the restoring of livelihoods. 75% of affected families had regained their main source of income by middle of this year she said, with a near 100% recovery rate in the fisheries sector. 95% of destroyed boats have been replaced and production levels are over 70% of the pre-tsunami levels.

However RADA has pointed out that despite the over supply of boats, some of the legitimate beneficiaries are yet to receive support. The Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) which carried out a survey of 600 households in 14 Grama Niladhari Divisions (GNDs) in 6 affected districts across the southern and eastern provinces in July this year on housing, livelihoods recovery, aid distribution, community cohesiveness, and disaster management however did not paint such a rosy picture of the recovery process.
According to the IPS survey major constraints faced by households include recovering income levels, loss of equipment, loss of work places, lack of working capital and personal injuries. The report states that this was more prevalent in the eastern province than in the south,

The survey found that the most common strategy for coping with loss of income had been a reduction of consumption of food, followed by borrowing and dependence on loans. Of major concern is the revelation that a large percentage of households are reducing food consumption as a coping strategy, it said. A smaller percentage of households have also resorted to the selling of assets and seeking employment for more members of the household.

The survey also revealed the unfolding of a number of social problems. Progress in the health and education sectors too have lagged, work on only 13 of the affected schools have been completed. Work on 171 tsunami affected schools was still pending.
Meanwhile in the health sector 33 construction projects had been completed, work was in progress on 69 medical institutions, while another 189 have yet to be completed.

In the aftermath of the tsunami, there were pledges of over US $ 3 billion made for reconstruction of roads, bridges and the restoration of power. However the lack of donor funding has become a major constraint today. The RADA official said that even though massive pledges were made, expect for Japan which sent the money directly to the Government of Sri Lanka, other funding had not been forthcoming.

“We are working with the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) via loans that they provide on identified projects but this money has to be paid back by the government,” she said. There has also been no follow up so far on the shocking report released last year by the Auditor General’s Department regarding tsunami funding. The Auditor General’s report pointed out that there were massive irregularities and misdeeds in the management of foreign funds as well as in the Government’s handling of tsunami aid. The AG’s report charges that millions of rupees collected locally also remained unaccounted for with records of collections not being maintained.

Mrs. Fernando said it had been projected that the southern districts affected by the tsunami would return to pre-tsunami status by the end of next year. She said a difficulty in finding land in the Western province may delay the process a little longer. However in the north and east she said a different situation operates. Infrastructure development and other recovery work had come to a virtual halt since thee escalation of violence since August this year.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) which has committed a total of US $ 157 million as tsunami assistance to Sri Lanka said the current security situation was affecting the progress of project implementation in northern and eastern areas. It said the situation was making it difficult to find suitable contractors.

The Bank, in its official web site said, price escalations in construction materials and restrictions on the transport of construction materials to northern and eastern areas had further delayed project completion. RADA too says that the even though the recovery process is making positive progress, the complex security situation in the north and east could reduce the impact of on going interventions.

The tsunami: Its social cost
A survey by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) has revealed some alarming details of the social cost of the tsunami.
In a survey conducted in July this year, it was revealed that around 11% of households knew of someone committing suicide because of the tsunami.

It also revealed that 30% cent of households claimed to have children who are yet to restart schooling after the tsunami. The problem is slightly more pronounced in the conflict affected eastern province. It was also found that child labour is one reason for reduced school attendance with income recovery seemingly having a bearing on restarting schooling after the tsunami.

In the survey it was also found that a few households reported experiencing more sleeping difficulties, and more children having nightmares compared to pre-tsunami levels. In addition, a large number of households have stated that some members of the household had experienced deterioration of physical health after the tsunami. A third of the households have been offered or given counselling for distress with the percentage of households receiving counselling is comparably higher in the Eastern Province.